


Friends

by Lonersoforlorn



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26673022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lonersoforlorn/pseuds/Lonersoforlorn
Summary: Beth Chapel makes a new friend. Also posted on fanfic.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 319





	Friends

“I’ve been here my whole life and this is the first time I’ve ever got close enough to see the door,” Beth says to Chuck, an AI programmed into her goggles. 

Goggles that should currently be placed securely in her backpack as eyes would wander during the daylight. Although this block was normally avoided especially around Halloween. And today was Halloween. A day where teens like her approached this house and tried to see how far they could venture. Today, Beth Chapel and her friends were going to try their hand at it just not as themselves but their heroic alter-egos.

But that wasn't until night fell where they would easily blend in with the costumed citizens of Blue Valley. Costumed citizens who had no clue that Beth and her friends had just saved the world from a hostile takeover by the ISA. Yeah, Beth Chapel who everyone at Blue Valley High thought was a loser saved the world. And it was awesome! Scary but awesome! 

Beth has been facing a lot of her fears. She remembered how scared she was to ask her friends on this outing. Normally, Beth wouldn't propose breaking and entering but there was always something odd about this house. Something supernatural. 

Every year a skeletal figure sat on a bench on the front deck of the condemned house of horrors. Many theorized that someone placed it every year as a decoration to scare people off but no one had ever seen who it was. Some think the owner of the condemned house still lives inside whether by haunting or by using their squatter's rights. What terrifies everyone about the house isn't the decoration itself but the fact that it moves.

A fact not denied by a single person who's gone there. It's brought a hypothesis to Beth Chapel, one that centers on the Dragon King’s experiments. If she's right then that lost being might need the help of the JSA. A team of heroes that she and her friends were members of.

It's hard to believe that mere months ago Beth was friendless. It's even harder to believe that the two people who've sat by her for months and years in Rick’s case are now her friends. Friends that she's still very much waiting to arrive. She goes back to the memory of her asking them. 

Courtney had agreed with enthusiasm and started coming up with potential theories. Yolanda was adamant about not going. She didn't want to entertain the idea of ghosts existing. It was only after Beth kept emphasizing the dragon king’s experiments that Yolanda agreed to come. Rick was silent through most of the exchange but after Beth spoke to him directly he answered with a maybe. A maybe wasn't a confirmation but Beth felt any interaction with Rick where he interacted back was a win.

So now she waits. Waits for her friends. 

The word friends cause her to feel as if she’s floating because after years of being a social outcast Beth Chapel has friends and she couldn’t be happier. 

“Technically, Beth Chapel you aren’t close enough. As you are using my zooming feature to look at the front door.” Chuck responds, bringing Beth’s attention back to her current task. 

“Well, I can’t get too close. We can’t have the whole world seeing Doctor Mid-Nite staring at a house.”

Okay, so there’s a possibility that she’s scared right now. She may not be as convinced of the dragon king experiment theory as she portrays. In fact, she might think that ghost theory has more leverage than she cares to admit. 

”From the elevated heartbeat and nervous twinge in your voice I’ve concluded that you are afraid.” 

“No.” Beth denies but then admits defeat when Chuck shows lie detected on the screen. “You’ve got me. I’m scared.”

“It’s just-“ She continues before stopping, an odd movement on her screen. “Chuck zoom in on that bench by the door.”

Chuck does so, zooming in on the bench. Sitting on the bench is the skeleton decoration looking just as everyone’s described. It looks insanely realistic. Nothing at all like the plastic one in the Biology classroom that Artemis Crock grabbed the skull of and kicked through the hall of Blue Valley High. The skeleton is moving its head to one side as if it’s got a crick in its neck.

“That’s strange,” Chuck observes, his screen changing to a thermal camera. “I detect a heat signature and a heartbeat from that skeleton.”

“What?” Beth whispers, her voice sounding afraid to come out. “Is it a ghost?”

Logically, Beth knew that ghosts shouldn't have heartbeats. She was the daughter of a doctor but she was also scared. And her fear was overcoming her logic. 

“Negative. It doesn’t match the thermal criteria gathered for ghosts in my data.”

“Wait, ghosts are real?” Beth croaks, her voice receding more and more. 

“Very much so. In fact, there was a ghost member of the JSA called the Spectre.”

“Who’s the spectre?” Beth wonders. 

A ghost-like man in a green hood appears on the screen. The top of his face is obscured by the green hood and he wears an eternal frown. 

“A spirit of vengeance who struggled with the JSA’s moral code. He never provided that much on himself. But the JSA helped him fight Eclipso.”

Before Beth has a chance to ask Eclipso’s file flicks on the screen. Under abilities, she sees the word possession and finds herself startled.

“So Eclipso can be anyone?” She asks, contemplating a scenario. She pictured herself being forced to fight against her friends. She's horrified by the thought.

“When they were free but rest assure Beth Chapel because Eclipso is bound and somewhere no can ever find them. You and your friends will never have to face that spirit of wrath.”

“Good,” Beth says not sounding that assured. That scenario had left her rattled. She believed in her friends but there were times where she realized the fate of the first JSA could be their fate too. 

Beth was the team’s strategist so if anything like that went wrong...she wouldn’t know how to forgive herself. But she shouldn’t think that way. Her friends had defeated the ISA which was the very team that had killed their predecessors. Beth shakes her doubts away knowing that together she and her friends could face anything.

Her attention goes back to the skeleton sitting on the bench. “So who is that?”

Scan after various scans flashes on Chuck’s screen until a conclusion is made. Beth holds her breath when she reads Chuck’s final analysis. 

“A metahuman? Like the flash?”

“Correct and it appears he’s the same age as you.” 

“Does he live there all alone?” Beth wonders, staring at the skel-person on the bench.

“This house lists no residents so I would assume so. Have you seen him before?”

“Every Halloween I hear other students talking about the skeleton on the bench. But I don’t think he’s here on any day but today. I wonder why...”

A determined look crosses Beth’s face. “I’m going to ask.”

Chuck warns against it, telling Beth its best to wait for her friends before approaching. As scary as this house was, no had ever gotten hurt here so Beth is sure she’ll be safe. Well, if she isn’t she hopes those training sessions with her fellow JSA members made her a faster runner. Because if this does go awry Beth was a goner.

No, Beth Chapel managed to break into a villain hideout and come out alive. She could survive this. Beth takes off the Doctor Mid-Nite goggles and puts Chuck into her coat pocket. She takes out her glasses from the pocket on the other side of her coat and puts it on.

She then walks over to the front side of the house and makes her way down the pathway that leads to the steps of the front deck of the house. The front deck where the bench is placed and where a boy who was her age sat, waiting for a friend. 

Up the steps, Beth chapel goes. Fear rises in her with every step and when she nears the bench her mind is hazy and her determination is wilted. She gulps. Twice. Starts to say something and stops twice again.

Finally, she finds the handle of courage and opens the doors of her mouth.

“Hi!” She greets, her voice as upbeat as ever. She makes sure to keep her distance, her feet close to the top step for a quick escape. 

The boy doesn’t move. For a minute, Beth wonders if Chuck had made a mistake. Maybe this wasn’t a person? Maybe it was just a Halloween decoration left out to scare visitors.

But Beth Chapel wasn’t scared. She was ashamed. Ashamed that she could doubt Chuck. Ashamed that she was wishing the person before she was an illusion. 

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Beth begins, she moves a couple of steps forward. “ I-I want to be your friend. I know what it’s like-“

“What makes you think I don’t have friends?” The voice is deep but there’s a breeziness to it. As if it could entangle itself with the wind and get carried away.

Beth stiffens, unprepared for a conversation. Chuck was right, she should’ve waited for her friends. Courtney’s persuasive persistence always seemed to win people over. Beth had no clue on how to win anyone over. 

“I wasn’t assuming anything I just meant...”Beth’s voice drags in a puddle full of loose wires of nervousness. Every word is pulled near a spark ready to ignite a fire in another.“I don’t know what I meant. I’m sorry.”

The person on the bench points an accusing finger at Beth. “How did you even know I was here? People usually go straight into the house. Why did you focus on me?”

“Chu-I saw your thermal energy on my school borrowed camera. I’m part of a ghost hunters club.” 

Beth hopes her stumble isn’t noticed. A ghost hunting club is probably the worst lie ever but Beth was ready to commit to it. Only because her mind was blanking on other lies. Lying is not a skill that Beth Chapel possesses. 

“Schools have ghost hunting clubs?” The boy says sounding skeptic. 

“Only the cool ones,” Beth replies, hoping her expressions don’t give her away. 

“You really couldn’t come up with a better lie?” 

Beth tilts her head down, biting on her lower lip. “I’m not used to lying on a whim.”

Her face scrunches up as she realizes what she just confessed. “Not that I’m lying right now.” 

Her recovery doesn’t work and the person raises his hands in defeat. 

“You don’t have to tell me. As long as I don’t have to tell you why I’m here.”

Beth’s face twists up because that was the exact question she was leading up to. She nods in defeat. Beth agrees not to ask the question and shifts back to a question she should’ve asked in the first place. 

“What’s your name?” Beth inquires. 

“Bones. That’s what everyone calls me.” He remarks a twinge of disdain in his tone. 

“Is that what you liked to be called?”

He shakes his head. “According to Da-Doctor Love’s notes, my name is Robert. Robert Todd.”

“I’m Beth. Beth Chapel and it’s really nice to meet you.” Beth moves closer till she’s right in front of him. She puts her hand out, readying for a handshake. 

Robert Todd leans forward, observing her hand as if he’s never seen one before. Then with hesitation, he takes it in his grasp and shakes it. Beth expects to feel a bony grip but his hand is gloved, soft, and way bigger than hers. Their hands pull apart and Beth steps back.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?” Beth asks a question she’s always been afraid to ask anyone. It always ended in mocking guffaws followed with a cough that had loser thrown it or a thorny no.

He doesn’t answer, he leans sideways and peers at the empty part of the bench. He straightens his posture and then brushes piled up dust and dirt at the side Beth will sit. 

“The spot is free. You can sit there if you want.”

Beth smiles and sits beside him.


End file.
